Threats for airplanes in flight
By Amal Hewavisenti
The baffling series of aircraft tragedies in 2014 compels us to
believe that the previous year and the year ahead bode ill for flights.
An airplane in the air is naturally beset with multiple challenges - the
extreme weather conditions and technical defects being the most
prominent.
What is the typical structure of an airplane? There are many types of
aircraft in use today, for military, private, commercial and
recreational purposes. Helicopters and planes are heavier - than air
aircraft which need blades to keep them in the air.
Security
Most aircraft have a fuselage (central body) with wings near the
middle and a smaller tail plane and a fin at the back. Straight wings
operate best for carrying heavy loads at low speed but swept-back wings
offer an ideal air flow for fast flying.
In all respects, civil airline service is the paramount mode of
transport which unconditionally guarantees the safety of the airborne
passengers and goods.
Thus, the aircraft is equipped with all devices and strategies to
safeguard the passengers and their luggage from the very airport to
their destinations.
Here, special precautions are taken to prepare the airplane for a
safe flight and to ensure the perfect security for the passengers and
their goods. However, recent air crashes show that unexpected weather
conditions (most often the effect of thick fog) and technical defects
have been responsible for air tragedies.
The airport personnel ensures the safety of the air crew by
fortifying the security of the air port through exclusive inspection
work by the particular airline. The airline inspects the immigration and
emigration, the passengers' documents and even launch awareness programs
for the air crew.
Engineers
Furthermore, the special team of engineers from the particular
airline stay poised to make a thorough inspection of the technical
aspects of the particular aircraft. The engineers test the airplane
according to the basic rules given by the maintenance control manual
recommended by National Airliner Institution.
The engineers, pilots, airliner staff, and control room officers play
a major role in making the proper arrangements until the airplane
arrives at the Passenger Terminal. They are fastidiously cautious of the
proper operation of the plane and ensure that nothing goes amiss while
the plane flies in the high skies.
All this is to avert any possibility of air catastrophe or at least
to minimise the effects of an air crash.
Dangers
In spite of all these precautionary measures against any plane crash,
it is inevitable that the tragic truth - the dismal reality in the high
skies at an unexpected moment accounts for the loss of many lives.
The possible causes for plane crashes are detrimental weather
conditions, technical defects, terrorist activities, and chiefly
important, the animal interference and unexpected objects in the air.
According to the conclusions by IATA and ICAO, a plane crash
generally occurs once in 1.4 million flights in the case of a
technically flawless plane.
Animals
Strangely enough, an air plane is substantially disturbed by birds
inflight which strike violently on the plane either while the plane is
moving in the air or while it has landed on the airport. This is a
serious challenge fir flights though the case sounds uncommon.
The danger of a plane crash has been proved to be high when flying
birds hit on the plane while it takes off or lands or flies at a lower
level of height. As civil airline services and related institutions
analyse, such a collision damages the aircraft and kills the bird or any
animal on the spot.
The birds hitting on the moving plane is definitely a grave problem.
Frequently birds strike on a plane when it moves at a lower height or
when the pilot generates higher power to take the plane to a higher
elevation. Even while the plane prepares to land on an airport, the
threat of birds striking on any part of the plane becomes high. When the
birds flying towards the plane strike on the engine, the engine might
malfunction or fail to maintain the desired power for the plane.
The highest number of accidents related to animal collision has been
caused by the birds hitting on the engine. In such an instance, the
pilot is forced to cancel the flight or to land on a nearby airport to
prevent any risk of plane crash. However, the danger is high when the
bird hits the blades of the engine which may get damaged to the extent
of a disaster.
Unfortunately, any airplane carries possibility of being destroyed by
unforeseen agents in spite of assurances of technical perfection at the
airport. |